Faculty Rescinds Early Admit of Student Who Killed Mother in 1990

Tale of a New Life

Orphaned at the age of 14 and having survived the deaths of two alcoholic parents, Gina Grant came to Cambridge in the fall of 1991 to begin life anew.

By all accounts she succeeded. A top student at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Grant excelled on the school's science and tennis teams. Her success story--including her early-action acceptance to Harvard--made her the focus of a story about children who have persevered in Sunday's Boston Globe Magazine.

But that is where new troubles began for the 19-year-old senior.

Over the course of four days this week anonymous packages arrived at Grant's high school, the Harvard admissions office and the Boston Globe containing newspaper clippings about Grant's involvement in the September 1990 murder of her mother inSouth Carolina.

The Harvard admissions office rescinded heracceptance on Wednesday following a vote by theFaculty Standing Committee on Admissions andFinancial Aid.

But friends, supporters and neighbors of Grantdescribed her in interviews yesterday as anexceptional young woman struggling to over comepast abuse by alcoholic parents.

"I deal with this tragedy every day on apersonal level," Grant said in a statement throughher lawyer. "It serves no good purpose for anyoneelse to dredge up the pain of my childhood. Inaddition, I have no wish to defame my mother'smemory by detailing any abuse."

But it was that abuse, several sources close tothe South Carolina case say, that drove Grant tocommit an act she has since tried to put behindher.

"She has had to overcome much more than theaverage student," said a high school friend ofGrant's who declined to give his name. But theRindge and Latin senior said Grant did not try todraw attention to herself. "I don't think she wasinterested in gaining anybody's pity," he said.Grant did not tell her peers or teachers at theschool about killing her mother.

Grant's attorneys and others familiar with herpast in South Carolina described her actions asthe result of years of emotional abuse.

Both of Grant's parents were alcoholic. In 1987her father died of cancer, and her motherincreased a barrage of verbal abuse against Grant,then an honors student at the Lexington MiddleSchool in Lexington, S.C, according topsychiatrists and attorneys who worked on her casethere.

Grant's home life became worse after her oldersister Dana moved out, according to Grant's lawyerin the 1991 murder trial, Jack B. Swerling.

"Gina sort of became the object of Mom'sfrustrations," Swerling said. "She was the victimof an alcoholic mother who inflicted emotional andpsychological damage."

Dr. Harold C. Morgan, who was hired by Swerlingto perform a psychiatric evaluation of Grantduring the trial, agreed.

"It's not uncommon for a youngster who hasexperienced a lot of physical and emotional abuseto react to that sooner or later with an outburstof violence," the psychiatrist said. "She surelydid not have a major mental illness and was notinsane. Her behavior was related to the kind ofenvironmental and emotional stresses she hadsuffered over the years."